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Journalism about pwnage

Noob Rental Review – Alice: Madness Returns

Hello all! Welcome to the Noob Rental Review! 🙂 This week I played a game that came out last year. Partly because I had always thought it looked cool, but mainly because my rental place didn’t have the games I was looking for that came out this week, and I couldn’t travel around looking for them at different places without causing a statewide epidemic. Yes, my friends – I have been dubbed the ‘outbreak monkey,’ and I have to own it. I found out this week that I have viral bronchitis, and so to avoid spreading it about – because in this case sharing is not caring – I sent my husband on a quest to find a game. This has also affected the timeliness of my post, lol. So, while I made entire meals out of cough drops, this week I played Alice: Madness Returns.

I usually don’t play many horror genre games – I have a habit of freaking out and shooting at walls when the danger music comes on. The creepier the game, the more I jump and proceed attempting to take out unsuspecting walls, doors, cars, and whatever else *isn’t* actually attacking me, with a bazooka. Erm… I do this to add an extra level of difficulty… because I crave the added challenge of eventually running out of ammo, and being left with chucking my guns at my enemies. Yeah… That’s just how I roll…. Mmm-hmm…. It’s not because I’m scared or anything…

This game is definitely creep-tastic – both visually and psychologically. This is a much darker Wonderland, and Alice’s life, both in London and Wonderland, is a twisted mess. I never played the first Alice, so I get the feeling I missed something, but I am looking forward to seeing how the story plays out.

And the graphics are really good, which helps in adding to the atmosphere. There are a few places where they get a bit messy – especially when you see a place to explore in mini-Alice form, and shrink down, but can’t actually get through the opening due to an invisible wall – but over all it seems like a lot of thought was put into the different places, and into Alice herself.

Battle is a lot of fun, and for the most part is fluid. I do love that you can run up and hack your enemies into little pieces, but switching between weapons can become awkward, and sometimes annoying, especially mid-battle. Not enough to really take much away from gameplay though.

However, what did annoy me, to put it very lightly, was the save points – or lack thereof. There is only the autosave option, so if you die after completing a tough section of the game, you’re taken way back and have to do it all over again.

This angered me. Much cussing followed.

Over all, this game was a lot of fun to play. And even though I don’t play many horror genre games, I may go and pick this one up, or at least renew it (well, my husband may because I have the plague and am a biohazard right now). I’m curious to see how the game ends, and what happens to her. I’d say give this one a try, especially if you like the idea of a much darker Wonderland.

My Alice: Madness Returns Rating: Rental or Cash-Worthy, depending on how you feel about the save issue and horror genre.